With 1,000+ Routes, Year-Round Climbing and Cheap Living, This Eurasian Country Should Be On Your Radar

Last November—between France’s first and second COVID-19 lockdowns—saw the photographer Jan Novak scrambling to avoid another lengthy quarantine at his home in the Hautes-Alpes. Recalling the stunning sweeps of limestone he’d seen on a camping brochure about Geyikbayiri, Turkey, he bought a plane ticket and pfffttt. Novak arrived in the village in southern Turkey, just eight miles from the storied waters of the Mediterranean Sea, to discover that limestone “springs up everywhere like wildflowers.” The area’s 1,000 (and counting) routes were “a wonder, with gray-reddish colors, caves, and beautiful vertical gray faces,” says Novak. Camping was abundant. Weather was stonker. Easy living. Then there were the “smells of delicious Turkish food, sunny days, fresh vegetables and fruits from the market, kind locals, prayers echoing from mosques, and the famous chai tea.” Novak intended to stay in Geyikbayiri for two weeks, but two months later he was still there, shutter clicking away.

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